Christian Family Affairs Page 84

Living Beings

Prosperity (or want) came not to individuals in isolation but to their households. The very word "economy" comes from the Greek for "house law," because financial and other administration were Christian Family Affairs, not individual ones. Such Christian family affairs were often the responsibility of the householder's wife. Clement of Rome (c30-99 AD), who was martyred by being tied to an anchor and thrown into the sea, refers to women who have been taught in 1 Clement 1.3"to manage the affairs of the household with dignity." Psychologically, a person's identity, from that of the householder to that of the slave, resided in his or her connection to, responsibilities toward and function within the Christian family. Ordinarily, a household was held together by a common religion, generally following the religious beliefs of the head of the household.✞

Seedbed of the State

Cicero wrote, as related by Editors Craig A. Evans and Stanley E. Porter in "Dictionary of New Testament Background," "Since it is a natural feature of all living beings that they have the desire to propagate, the first association is that of marriage itself, the next is that with one's children, then the household unit within which everything is shared, that is the element from which a city is made, so to speak the seedbed of the state."What were the pros and cons of living in a Greek or Roman household in Jesus' time?✞